1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, and, more particularly to an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer, a word processor and an electronic typewriter each having a display unit and a recording unit.
2. Related Background Art
Hitherto, there has been an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer, a word processor, and an electronic typewriter and the like of a type having a manipulation input portion such as a keyboard and a display unit formed integrally. Recently, various apparatuses of so-called "laptop" type apparatuses each exhibiting excellent carrying and folding facilities have been widely used because of their structures each arranged in such a manner that its display unit is rotatively supported by the main body having the manipulation input portion, the display unit is superposed on the manipulation input portion when the apparatus is carried/stowed and the display unit is stood or positioned erect when the commencement of the operation of the apparatus is desired. Many of the apparatuses of the aforementioned type usually have a printer unit mounted on the rear portion (reverse side of the display) of the main body of the apparatus.
Furthermore, a so-called "note type" or a "book type" small and thin information processing apparatuses each exhibiting further improved carrying and folding facilities have been disclosed. With this tendency, a small and low-priced printer which can therefore be easily used by an operator has been suggested. Also the apparatus of this type has the printer disposed in the rear portion of the main body thereof.
There has been another structure arranged in such a manner that the manipulation input portion is arranged to be foldable onto the main body of the apparatus which has the display unit, the printer is positioned in the main body of the apparatus in the backside of the display and recording medium is inserted/discharged to and from an upper portion of the main body of the apparatus. Furthermore, there are a multiplicity of so-called desk top apparatuses each having a display formed by a CRT. Some of the apparatuses of the aforesaid type have printers each of which is disposed in the upper portion of the display.
The inventors of the present invention studied the aforesaid various information processing apparatuses, resulting in the following requirements for the location of the printer to be mounted on the information processing apparatus to be found:
(1) The limitation on the thickness of the recording medium must be suspended. That is, even if a thick recording medium (hereinafter called a "thick paper sheet") such as a postcard or an envelope is used in the recording operation as an alternative to the ordinary recording medium, the recording operation must be performed satisfactorily while preventing a problem to take place in the paper feeding operation. PA1 (2) The manipulation required at the time of the recording operation must be performed easily and simply. PA1 (3) An excellent visibility of the subject to which data is recorded must be obtained during the recording operation. That is, the recording medium transmitted as a result of the recording operation must easily be seen while being contrasted with the displayed image. PA1 (4) The size of the information processing apparatus must be reduced while satisfying the aforesaid requirements.
However, the conventional information apparatus cannot satisfactorily meet the aforesaid requirements.
The aforesaid information processing apparatus usually has the printer in which the recording medium is wound around a platen roller to be fed and subjected to the recording process. Therefore there arises a common problem in that a limitation is present in reducing the diameter of the paper feeding roller because it is necessary for the roller to also feed thick paper sheets such as postcards and envelopes. In order to protect the thick paper sheet from being undesirably folded, a considerably large space is required, and thereby the size of the printer unit cannot be reduced satisfactorily.
Some of the aforesaid note type and the book type apparatuses have the printers each of which can be detached from the main body apparatus or stood erect by turning it to feed the recording medium in a horizontal plane in the state where the printer is removed from the main body or in the state where the printer is stood erect. As a result, the size of the recording medium feeding rollers (paper feeding rollers) of the aforesaid apparatuses can be reduced and thereby the overall size of the printer unit can be reduced. Furthermore, the thick paper sheet can be fed as desired. However, a complicated operation such as separating the printer unit from the main body of the apparatus or turning the printer unit to be stood erect must be performed at the time of the recording operation. What is even worse, the apparatus of a type having the printer which is turned at the time of the recording operation must have a mechanism therefor, causing a problem to arise in that the size of the printer unit cannot be reduced.
In an information processing apparatus of the type having the printer unit disposed in the rear portion of the display unit, an operation of folding the display unit must be performed in order to set the recording medium to the printer unit. Furthermore, another problem in terms of the manipulating facility arises in that the subject to which data is recorded and the displayed image cannot be contrasted with each other.